Not The Usual Michael Bay Nonsense

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2007)

Michael Bay's science-fiction thriller "The Island" (*** out of ****) provides a refreshing change of pace from a summer glutted with prequels, sequels, remakes, and comic book superhero sagas. Despite its abysmal weekend box office figures and the usual critical carping that accompany all his movies, "The Island" qualifies as Bay's best movie since "The Rock" (1996), that far-fetched but supercharged nonsense about Nicolas Cage & Sean Connery escaping from Alcatraz. A number of things set "The Island" apart from its formula-driven competition. First, superstars don't flesh out the cast. Sure, Ewan McGregor receives top billing, but nobody would remember him as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the latest "Star Wars" trilogy, because the British actor wields neither a light saber nor does he wear a beard and a bathrobe. Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson hasn't acquired the clout that Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Lopez command. Nevertheless, she definitely looks bound for stardom in her own right. As a couple, McGregor and Johansson don't exactly set the world aflame like Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt did in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." Second, our heroes lack career professional skills, trades, or crafts. Meaning, they aren't cops, nurses, pilots, criminals, attorneys, or scientists out to save the world. Instead, they resemble grown-up children without street smarts confronting a hostile society that deliberately misleads them every step of the way. Third, the writers borrow important plot ideas from other sci-fi epics like "Logan's Run," "Soylent Green," "THX-1138," "Coma," "Westworld" and "Planet of the Apes," so that "The Island" emerges unmistakably as an homage to those late 1960s/early 1970s Watergate-inspired paranoid sci-fi white-knucklers that you enjoy with greater satisfaction based on less information about their plots. Don't discuss "The Island" with anybody unless you want them to blow its secrets and surprises. Fourth, Michael Bay has actually helmed a feature-length film that has something relevant to say about our society. Of course, this doesn't discourage the "Armageddon" director from hyping up the third act with trigger-happy police, explosions, auto chases, improbable surprises, and the usual demolition derby tactics that Bay has a knack for staging in big, overripe blockbuster blow-outs like "Pearl Harbor" and "Bad Boys" movies.
Cast as Lincoln Six Echo, Ewan McGregor of "Trainspotting" plays a compliant but curious nobody in a futuristic society where the inhabitants display no curiosity about their state of affairs and crave no desire to defy authority. Lincolnwe learn--survived a major catastrophe along with several thousand other people that has left the Earth a contaminated wasteland. As a result, those like Lincoln Echo Six must live in quarantine in a Utopian, man-made research facility. The staff monitors their patients' moods, their diet, and their overall behavior. Impatiently, Lincoln and the others bide their time for the opportunity to win a daily lottery and pick up the prize: a trip to a lush paradise known as The Island, billed as "nature's last remaining pathogen-free zone." Lincoln stands apart from his friends and fellows, because he allows his curiosity to get him into big trouble. Everything in this huge, antiseptic research facility may not be all it seems, and Lincoln begins to believe the worst. One of Lincoln's unhappy fellow workers insists that the lottery is fixed. Meanwhile, Lincoln gets friendly with Jordan Two Delta (pretty Scarlett Johansson of "Lost in Translation") and the two become quite chummy. In the sealed off research facility, nobody may engage in sexual behavior, and the vigilant staff maintain a 'proximity' rule that prevents a man and a woman from embracing. Lincoln Six Echo stumbles onto the truth when a cynical research facility technician, McCord (Steve Buscemi of "Con-Air"), warns our naïve hero about trusting humans. Eventually, Lincoln figures out a way to break out and Jordan accompanies him. A desperate Merrick (Sean Bean of "GoldenEye") hires ex-military, South African mercenary, Laurent (Djimon Hounsou of "Gladiator") to recapture Lincoln and Jordan before they can get to the world beyond their clean-scrubbed confines.
The first third of "The Island" poses an intriguing premise that Hollywood hasn't handled as forcefully since Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner." This politically incorrect actioneer about a notorious controversy and its possible repercussions on the life insurance industry seems almost inevitable. Typically, this kind of delicate but contentious subject matter fares better in the realm of science fiction, and the story occurs15 years into the future. About a half hour into this hokum, however, you should be 'wise' to what is really happening in the closely-guarded world of Lincoln and Jordan. Mind you, "The Island" is predictable from start-to-finish. Most of you will be one jump ahead of the protagonists. Literary critics call this audience empowerment 'dramatic irony,' because we know more than the heroes. Nevertheless, both Lincoln and Jordan stack up as very likable and sympathetic characters. You'll want them to triumph over clearly impossible odds. Incredibly, the able supporting cast and characters prove just as congenial, meaning you'll care about them, too. The second third of "The Island" imitates a horror movie without excessive blood and gore. Like all provocative sci-fi thrillers, "The Island" delivers a vision of the future that is as chilling as anything in a holocaust movie. Despite the dreadful subject matter, Bay handles it in a way that makes his points without sickening us. The final third is your average knuckle-busting chase movie with melodramatic story reversals that undoubtedly will aggravate nit-pickers who demand realism, even when realism robs whatever charm any movie contains. For example, our clueless heroes extract themselves from one cliffhanger situation after another that people with their limited brainpower couldn't pull off considering the savvy and resources at the disposal of their assailants! You'll have to remind yourself repeatedly that "The Island" is only a movie, but at least it isn't a prequel, sequel, remake, or superhero saga!